Romy wrote:In advance, forgive me my failures in English for my first post and all permitted successors.
I was attracted here by the controversy of early versions of RYBKA and any alleged small idea or even code/method borrowings or inspirations by its author Mr Rajlich.
You may not know that this matter even has escaped into the realworld media. Der Spiegel!!
I studied the whole thing, read a PDF from Mr Wegner and a PDF from another who did not directly sign his name to it, but who is known. And I read hundreds of post here and in open chess and hiarcs, and a hit-letter to ICGA with list of confederated signers.
I think by this standard applied against Mr Rajlich, even Mr Shakespeare should be banned. Shakespeare borrowed plots, methods, ideas even big groups of words. Plays are not chessprograms but the principle is similar.
Point is, Shakespeare's improvements were of great supergenius, not (relatively) mediocre like his so-called inspiration sources
More I studied this matter, more I was reminded of this wise quotation --
"This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the management of great affairs, has been imputed to divers causes, that need not be here set down, when so obvious a one occurs, if what a certain writer observes be true, that when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
- Jonathan Swift, "Essay on the Fates of Clergymen", 1728
I do not call all the signatories to the anti-Rajlich as "dunces" but I do classify them as dunces by relativity - means by comparison to Mr Rajlich. In my opinion. And in opinion of Chess. Everything is relative. In their own circles I am sure they are all great wiseguys. Maybe, 20 or 30 years ago they too were genius not (relative) dunce.
Reason for my thinking is this. Their creations were not only beaten thoroughly by RYBKA, but were beaten with a maximum of humiliation! They could not even understand the chess method, how they were beaten! Most of the time they and their vast-inferior creations thought they were drawing, even winning, then as if my magic RYBKA prevailed. No magic. Just a higher chess.
So the 10 signatures to the anti-Rajlich letter, to me are all a nonsense and a confederacy. Of no appreciable value. No probative value. No evidential value. No big technical value. Only grapes value. Sour, even?
So what if Mr Rajlich looked at Mr Letouzey's work? He produce something of much higher magnitudes, level, understanding - Mr Rajlich's genius.
In all so-called evidence I see patch of code here and of source there. Nowhere I see understanding of how the alleged son is so much stronger (at Chess! not programming!) than the father.
If Mr Houdart (author of the HOUDINI) were to sign such a hit-letter as produced against Mr Rajlich, then I would pay some attention to the letter. At least HOUDINI is a suitable calibre opponent to RYBKA, its author's opinion deserve respect. All I can see is result of RYBKA-CRAFTY or other lacklustres. How many game I have to play from neutral openingbook before Crafty win single game against RYBKA? 300? 3000? More? JUNIOR same.
I am waiting to be sent testcopy of Dr Wael Deeb's chessprogram. His most gentle, most refined language is a good attracter for me.
History will record this attack event much the same as my analysis, of this I am confident.
ICGA better disband before Mr Levy gets into trouble, I would advise. It has no legal role and should watch carefully unwise statement.
My advice to Mr Rajlich, ignore the mob, I mean confederacy. Let them make sanctions. History is to your side. Tournament without RYBKA is like human chess world without KASPAROV. Do not even soil your hand with lawsuit. It is in the inherent(?) nature of dog to bark when it sees a frightening power, and of dunces to confederate, so there is no question of blame.
Even if Mr Rajlich did 90% of what he is accused, no big deal, it is matter of legal interpretation. Mozart had but once to hear other's music, he internally recorded and processed then improved greatly. There are many examples.
Condemn Rajlich, you condemn Shakespeare and Mozart too.
Excuse me, I have no intention of providing offense to any person, even Salieri. Only for perspective. So, confederacy of (relative) dunces, please excuse my statements, they all were given with the maximum of due, earned respect to you.
Romy
Carol as it now seems clear that you are a "pro-angler", I thought I'd share this passage with you.
" As the calendar turns to May, I always think of the 24th of May fishing trips planned by my father and brothers.
Almost every year, Dad would take the three oldest boys and head out for "ponds unknown" to do some troutin'. Off they would trek while the skies were still dark. They would often head out over the Trans Canada Highway and pull off near Soldier's Pond. They'd don their long rubbers and walk about 5 miles, over muskeg and shrub brush, to get to a pond "that was not over-fished, you know". I hear my brothers reminiscing now and the tales are all of rooting each other in the behind with the tips of their fishing rods as they trudged along over the barrens and skylarking until Dad would get mad at them. The oldest boy would complain as he would have to lag at the back to make sure the younger ones didn't get too far back and get left behind.
The night before the trip Mom would make a stack of potted meat sandwiches (with a bit of mustard pickles diced up in it for flavour), wrap them up in waxed paper and thrust them into an old canvas back pack Dad had. Of course there was a small kettle and box of Seadog matches tucked in along side for the boil up along the way. A tin of beans set over the open fire to heat and the little kettle on to boil having been filled with water from the nearest brook… I don't know if there is a cup of tea in the world that tastes as good as one made over an open fire with blasty boughs and juniper twigs firing a kettle full of brook water!
Another popular 24th of May trek for our family was out to a place near the Witless Bay Line. There was a family, named Kane, who used to be our neighbours in the early days. Old Mr. Kane had a summer shack out Witless Bay area that had a renowned spring giving them drinking water. The spring must have come from deep in the Earth as the water was as cold and pure as any our can find anywhere. The Kane family was devout Catholic and their legend was that a priest, who was a relative, had blessed the well when it was first dug and it flowed pure water due to this. Dad knew of a good fishing gully in the general direction of the Kane property so they would stop at the spring for a "mug-up" and then trek another 3-5 miles to the place he wanted to fish.
Once they got where they were going (Dad always seemed to have a place in mind back then, but now the boys think it was all a ruse) Dad would get them set up and he would go to another side of the pond to wet his line. Of course, as soon as the afternoon sun got at them; after the early rise and long walk over the barrens, they would often as not lie down on the moss for a snooze. Mr. Kane joined them for some fishing one year and Bill recalls how much fun it was to watch him. The old fellow was convinced that the fish could see you up through the water so to get the big ones to bite, you had to sneak up on them to cast out your line…so as not to scare them out into deeper water. He said the old guy would get into a queer crouch about 4 or 5 feet from the side of the pond. He would then scuttle forward, still in his crouched position and fling his line out. He would stay crouched until the line got slowly reeled back in and then repeat the procedure. Bill and the other boys laughed and thought the man quite mad until he started reeling in the fish. He got the best catches of the day. That gave them something to think about as they trudged back across the barrens!
One year, my Father took the Newfie Bullet "Trouter's Special" with my oldest brother, Bill and his best friend, Eric. Dad reckoned there was no where else on Earth that a man could take a free train ride to some of the best wilderness fishing and back, but that's what you could do on the Trouter's Special on May 24th weekend.
For those of you that don't know, the Newfie Bullet was the name of the trans-provincial train that used a narrow gauge rail and would plod its way slowly back and forth across the Island from the late 1800's until the 1980's when it was deemed to be useless and the tracks torn up…to be replaced by a trans-provincial bus service run by C.N.
The Newfie Bullet moved at such a slow pace that the standing joke was about a woman who went to the conductor when the train neared Corner Brook and told him he had to stop the train as she was about to deliver her baby. When he chided her for attempting such a trip in her condition, she informed him that she was not pregnant when she left St. John's! Anyway, being a British colony until 1949, Newfoundlanders took their 24th of May holiday (celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday) seriously. The Bullet made a special run that weekend from St. John's out across the Avalon Peninsula as far as Argentia, to take folks to good fishing spots. You could pretty well tell the conductor to stop anywhere along the line by pulling the rope bell. The Trouter's Special left St. John's on Friday afternoon, with a lot the men weighed down by their fishing baskets full of Screech and beer, and it returned Sunday afternoon. The trip out was apparently quite a lot of fun with the men singing and telling tales of May long weekends past (the fish were HUGE, don't you know!) For passage back to St. John's you had to be sure you were by the side of the tracks to flag the train down as it went past on Sunday. You had better not miss the return trip, though, or you'd have a long walk ahead of you!
I have been known to wet a line occasionally over the years but I didn't get the "fishin' bug" like some of my siblings did. One of my daughters is an avid angler, though. She often spends at least one afternoon fishing on the "May long".
However you spend your May 24th weekend, do something you really enjoy doing with people you like spending time with! Make it a celebration of spring, be safe and most of all….be happy! "
Now we have both shared great "fish" stories, I bid you good luck in your future *angling* adventures.
